The Presentation School’s 17 graduating eighth graders broke a great deal of new ground for the school, including spear-heading the school’s first ever Student Council, its first trip to Washington, D.C. (since 9/11) and reaching new heights for the school academically.
The class is evenly split in its post-graduation plans with six set to attend Sonoma Valley High School, six heading to Justin-Siena in Napa and five dispersing to other academic institutions including Sonoma Academy, St. Vincent’s, Petaluma High School and Maria Carillo. One student was accepted to three extremely competitive boarding schools on the East Coast and will be attending Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, the alma mater of John F. Kennedy.
At the Graduation Baccalaureate, eighth graders Nina Sheridan and Rayne Caldwell-Barr Panizo were honored with The Daughter’s of the American Revolution Citizenship Award. Nina Sheridan and eighth grader Lily Shapiro were honored with the U.S. Department of Education Presidential Awards for Academic Excellence. Their classmate Mia St. John was honored with the U.S. Department of Education Presidential Award for Academic Achievement. In addition, graduate Stine Bryne received a scholarship for academic promise from Justin-Siena High School in Napa.
In addition to working hard and excelling in the classroom and on the sports fields, this class was active in community service projects ranging from the school’s Coin Wars Fundraiser for Haiti to assembling care packages for troops over the holidays.
The class of 2010 was one of the first grades to attend all of middle school on Presentation’s new campus. Says Presentation Director Nancy Waarich-Fischman, “Whether it was through their Electives or musical performances or the annual school-wide Art Show, they truly took advantage of the opportunities afforded to them by our expanded state-of-the-art facilities.”
After graduation, at the final awards ceremony of the year at Presentation, two students – eighth Nina Sheridan and seventh grader Summer Atwood were honored for having received a perfect 4.0 GPA (the highest GPA allowed by the school). In addition, nine students were honored for having achieved High Honors: Ellen Angeloni (8th), Lily Shapiro (8th), Rayne Caldwell-Barr Panizo (8th), Nicholas Sperry (7th), Alison Gray (6th), Jack Greenberg (6th), Taylor Gulrajani (6th), Kirsten Couchman (6th) and Emma Cooper (6th). Thirty-two additional students in grades six through eight were named to the school’s Honor Roll for the third trimester.
At the end of year Awards Ceremony, Kelsey Walthard in seventh grade received First Place in the Order of the Hibernian History Essay Writing Contest at the statewide level. Niki Lewis in sixth grade received second place at the statewide level and Devin Salmonsen in sixth grade received third place in the statewide level from the Hibernians. Two students, sixth grader Kaylin Riebli and seventh grader Dominic Spingola, were honored by La Luz for their artwork. Presentation Director Nancy Warich-Fishman also awarded the Presentation Director’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to School Spirit to seventh graders Frances Minigan and Kelsey Walthard. Awards were also given to Alexandra Garber in fourth grade for perfect attendance in all three trimesters and to Jack Greenberg (6th) and Megan Neely (8th) for perfect attendance in the second and third trimesters.
